With Elegance and Fury
by Zerodone
Summary: Weiss was the one who said the team shouldn't have any secrets from each other. As such, there's something she probably should tell her team. Namely her considerably big private, insectoid, alien army.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I think my I accidentally corrected some Abathur dialogue with my grammar program.

As always, Weiss Schnee was the first one of Team RWBY to wake up, though to be honest, today it was more due to the fact that she hadn't been able to sleep at all. The sun was still on the rising and it wouldn't be until another hour had passed that the others would need to get up and prepare for the day ahead of them. Their first semester as Huntresses in Training was almost over, which meant that they would soon have exams, next week to be precise. Not that she was worried about her own grades. Weiss had a very good memory, almost photographic and just to be sure she always studied a little more to make sure she got nothing but good grades. Blake and Yang were good on their own. Neither bothered with perfect grades, the latter allowing herself to slip up once in awhile, but all in all they were above average. It was Ruby, their leader, that always had trouble with tests and the like, as long as they don't some form of combat. Ruby Rose was a prodigy fighter and as such personally selected by the headmaster of Beacon Academy to become a huntress at this prestigious school. The backlash was, Ruby lacked two entire years of education and as such it was up to their teammates to bring her up to speed. Easier said than done. Ruby wasn't a slacker, not by a stretch, but she was easily distracted, at least in class. Plus the amount of knowledge the poor girl's brain had to process in the short amount of time given was just too much. The end result being that her almost all of her grades were just high enough to not fail in class. But at times, they got pretty close.

Weiss let out a sigh, as she figured the following week would be a stressful one. As if the past days hadn't been stressful enough, what with Blake revealing to be secretly a Faunus and a former White Fang member at that! It was probably good fortune that Blake decided to run away and gave Weiss the time to cool down, no pun intended, else the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company or SDC for short would have lashed out at her friend to the extreme. As things were, Weiss had the time to consider where Blake came from and how Faunus were generally treated at Atlas. Weiss had known of it before, but only yesterday she fully realized just how biased she was against Faunus, not only thanks to her upbringing but also given her family's dispute with Faunus and especially the White Fang. Taking all that into consideration, as well as the time she had spent with the cat Faunus, not to mention the training missions they went on, Weiss now fully understood Blake's position.

Looking over to the girl, who was lying in her bed on the opposite side of the dorm room, Weiss saw for the first time that Blake was not wearing her ribbon while sleeping. It was quite the unusual sight, but thinking about it now, it had been kind of obvious from the beginning that Blake was a Faunus, given the eyes.

As a result of everything that transpired, the team promised themselves to not hide anything from each other anymore. It had been Weiss' idea and just thinking about it, caused her chest to tighten, for there was something she had yet to tell any living being on this planet.

"Hypocrite…" the girl mumbled to herself, which apparently was still loud enough for Blake's ears to twitch. Weiss allowed herself to smile, something you didn't see often. People genuinely freaked out, when she was happy and Ruby for some reason was so used to Weiss insulting her, that the youngest girl in the academy would suffer from genuine withdrawal.

Shaking her head, Weiss figured she might as well get ready for the day. Gathering her clothes, she tip-toed into the bathroom and firstly took a long shower. Since none of her teammates were awake, she was able to take the time and allow her muscles to relax. In a matter of seconds her hair was sticking to her skin, which was actually a quite nice feeling. The only downside, of course, was it got in her way of cleansing her body, not to mention tending and caring for such long hair took it's time. The others always complained of how long it took her to get ready. The heiress of SDC thought that at least Yang would understand her, given that the blonde was a fanatic when it came to her hair. You touched it, you would wake up a cripple (except your name was Ruby Rose). You cut it, you would wake up a cripple and die from internal damage six months later (even if your name was Ruby Rose).

After finishing her morning routine, Weiss stepped out of the bathroom, fully dressed and ready in her school uniform, only to find that Blake was already awake and was still not wearing her ribbon.

"You're up early." the heiress commented.

"I could say the same thing." the Faunus retorted.

"I couldn't sleep," Weiss admitted, closing her eyes for a brief second. "It's...a lot has happened these past few days and I guess my mind has yet to fully process it."

"I see." Blake looked down on the ground, her voice faltering a little bit.

"Hey, none of them," Weiss said harshly, causing Blake to look up. "We have already been through this yesterday, so let's not dwell on it, alright? Else I fear Ruby is going to put handcuffs on us until we have settled our differences."

Blake chuckled at the statement. "Is it weird that I can actually imagine that happening?" The Faunus asked rhetorically. "Anyways, since the shower is free now, I think I'm gonna take one."

Weiss walked out of the way of her fellow teammate, so she could enter the bathroom. The heiress in the meantime prepared her school bag for the day or rather she checked if she had forgotten to pack anything the previous day. As it turned out like it always did, everything was in order and she was ready to head for breakfast. However, out of courtesy she waited for her fellow teammates to wake up and get ready for the day. Aside from them being more tired than usual, it was actually a relatively normal morning for Team RWBY, as they headed towards the cafeteria.

/X/

"Remember students," Professor Oobleck spoke in his usual fast paced matter, making it hard for students to keep up with his lectures "you will all be examined next week," he took a sip from his coffee, which he always carried around with him "I expect of you to use the last week to review everything we have gone through so far. Hopefully, none of you have set it aside until the very last moment. But alas, if there is anything to learn from history, it is bound to repeat itself. I hope the people who really put your studying aside until now will learn from your mistake and not repeat it in the future. With that being said, let us go on from where we left off."

As Oobleck continued his lecture, Weiss looked over to Ruby, her hand not stopping to take notes. The leader's expression was crestfallen, which was understandable under the circumstances. Pushing through classes you technically weren't ready for was one thing, as you had teammates you could rely on to help you through. But passing an exam, where you couldn't just silently communicate with the people around you? That was something entirely different. No doubt, Ruby was afraid to crash and burn in about every test that would come up. It didn't matter how much of a prodigy she was, if she failed too badly, she could possibly be expelled from Beacon. Granted that actually took a great amount of effort, but still, it was a real threat for Ruby and by proxy to her entire team. Something needed to be done and Weiss had the feeling that normal tutoring wouldn't do the trick this time.

/X/

Classes went on as expected. Every teacher went on as to how tests would be coming up next week, at the lunch table Nora, Jaune and Ruby vocalized very loudly their displeasure about the upcoming exams, while the rest tried to cheer their fellow teammates up. It didn't work at all. The same could be said for the study sessions in the library. Ruby was so nervous about the upcoming test that they didn't make any headway, which in return made the red hooded girl feel even worse.

On that evening, Weiss pulled her teammates, Blake and Yang, aside, while Ruby was busy clearing her head by taking care of her beloved weapon Crescent Rose in one of the many workshops, which were located on the fifth floor of Beacon Academy.

"I know you don't like hearing this" Weiss specifically addressed Yang "but at this rate, Ruby is going to fail in every single subject next week."

Yang let out a groan in response. "Yeah, yeah, I know. It's not even that Rubes is not smart, it's just…"

"...she's two years behind us." Blake finished for her partner. "But it's not like the tests are that important. If she fails now, she can always improve later."

"That I am aware of, however, the thing is, should all of her grades be really bad, there is a chance she might get expelled from Beacon. I informed myself about the regulations, before entering. In theory, it should be impossible for anyone to be so bad that they get anything worse than a letter to the parents. However, this is practically the first time someone has entered this school without the proper knowledge. They have very high standards at every academy in the four kingdoms, after all."

"Tch, we know that Ice Queen." Ruby's elder sister scoffed. "Do you have a plan or anything that might help us with Rubes' problem?"

"Actually, I was hoping you could provide us with any information regarding Ruby's study methods. Does she, for example, listen to any music, when studying?"

Yang thought for a moment about the question. "Not really." she shrugged. "Usually she just sits down somewhere and goes through her notes, like everyone else. Sometimes we would ask each other questions for an upcoming test or I would help her with the subject she was struggling on, but nope. No specific study method."

"Which means, we simply need to find a suitable and efficient study method for our leader," Weiss said as if expecting such an answer.

"Not a bad idea." Blake nodded thinking. "We could maybe use the pet method."

"Er...what?" Yang titled her head.

"It's simple, really. If you want to teach your pet, say your dog, a trick then one method is to reward your pet with a treat, every time he gets it right. We might be able to pull off the same thing, by allowing Ruby to eat a cookie every time she gets a question right."

"That….might actually work." Yang conceded, imagining Ruby with a wagging dog tail, while Yang held a cookie above her head, just out of reach for the girl. "Though, we might want to throw in the occasional strawberry. She loves those too."

"Disturbing mental images aside, I guess it might be worth a try." Weiss vocalized her thoughts. "But in order for that to work, we need to make sure Ruby is cut off from every and any cookie she might have stashed around our dorm."

"That might be a problem." Blake scratched the back of her head. "She has them hidden literally everywhere. It'll be pretty tough to find every single one of her hideouts."

"Not to mention, she gets pretty zealous, when someone even touches one of her treats." Yang pointed out.

Weiss let out a sigh. "It can't be helped. If Ruby wants to continue her time at Beacon, then she has to make the necessary sacrifices."

/X/

In the end, Ruby had been entirely for the idea, but the problem was, the girl was simply spent from learning all day. Team RWBY had no choice but to postpone their idea until the next day arrived. Weiss and Blake decided to stay up a little bit more and go through the material of Oobleck's class one more time. Yang thought her brain needed a rest and played some video games under her blanket. Ruby was already asleep, which was unusual for the normally highly energetic girl, but this was probably due to the fact that her teammates had mentally pushed their leader to the limit.

Weiss let out a mental sigh. As much as she had come to respect their leader (she would never admit that to anyone), there was still much work to be done. The lack of education was only one of those things.

~Terran brain, inefficient. Subject Ruby Rose can only use minimal amount at once. Focus limited to one specific task. Can improve, easily.~

~I didn't ask for your opinion, Abathur!~ Weiss scolded her gen-master over the mental link she shared with any creature that was under her direct control.

~I hope there is an actual reason for you to barge in like that.~ the heiress continued, while flipping a page on her book. ~I have a rather tiring day behind me and the following two weeks will be just the same. What is it?~

~Analysis of Team RWBY strains complete. An important discovery in strain of subject Ruby Rose. Possible Anti-Grimm weapon.~

The only reaction Weiss Schnee showed on the outside, was that she "accidentally" dropped her pen to the ground. On the inside, however…

~WHAT?! RUBY, THE DOLT RUBY, AN ANTI-GRIMM WEAPON?! EXPLAIN IMMEDIATELY!~

~Integrated various strains into Zerg. Strains of Ruby Rose resulted in Zerg having silver eyes. Sent Zerglings against Grimm. Expected result: Speed Semblance assimilated. Unexpected result: psionic reaction. Zerglings eyes glowed. Upon eye contact, Grimm froze. No movement, no fighting back. Grimm killed.~

It took Weiss a while to digest the information her gen-master had given her. She thought after she first encountered the oversized worm, nothing could surprise her anymore. But then came Ruby. And then there was the revelation about Blake being a Faunus, something she should have known from the very start! And now this!

~How is this possible?! I know silver is not the most common eye color in Remnant, but still! It can't be just because of that!~

~Cannot give definitive answer.~ Her gene-master replied.

~Need living test subject for further studies. Recommend bringing subject to outpost hive cluster with subjects Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long. Can assimilate semblance. First Prototypes proven useful.~

Weiss let out a mental groan. As useful as Abathur was, he only cared about the improvement of the swarm and didn't consider other factors, like Weiss' social life (minimal, but still there) or the consequences of abducting random hunters in order to gather their unique semblances. Hunters were with a little exaggeration about a million times stronger than the average human. With their weapons, they can tear Grimm apart, like they're nothing and to be frank the same went for most of the Zerg. So far Weiss had successfully managed to keep the swarm hidden from unnecessary prying eyes, but as of late the Grimm attacks had significantly increased. With each battle, her swarm fought, there was always the chance of the humans noticing the Grimm activity. They might possibly send out huntsman to investigate and the strength of a regular huntsman, it would be hard to just kill one before he or she could report their findings to the wrong person. Having the Grimm as an opposition was bad enough for the heiress, as they regularly attacked her hive clusters throughout remnant, sometimes even destroying them.

Back to the matter at hand, Weiss was still contemplating about the fact that her leader was supposed to have a unique DNA-Strain, which allowed her to metaphorically turn Grimm to statues. The girl had never talked about having such an ability, let alone use it on the field. But then again, Abathur did say that the ability was psionic and so far Weiss had not sensed any other psion aside from herself.

~Psionic abilities possibly dormant. Possibly not useable due to brain structure. Cannot say for certain. Need living test subject.~

~...I'll think about it.~ the heiress answered eventually. ~For now, keep working on giving our Zerg an Aura.~

Back in reality, Weiss closed her book, deciding to call it a night. She put her school supplies into her backpack, quietly wished the other two awake roommates a good night and closed her eyes. However, she did not plan to fall asleep just yet. Using her psionic abilities, she reached out with her mind towards Ruby's, until she could a calm sensation washing over her. Ruby was in deep slumber, not dreaming, but mentally not there as well. Despite what Abathur had told her about this "silver eye ability", Weiss could not find the slightest hint about Ruby having any kind of psionic potential. Her mind didn't show the slightest hint of noticing Weiss' intrusion. The heiress could go through her leader's memories and see if anything was to be found there, but Weiss had too much dignity (and bad experience) to do such a thing. She was actually about to break the connection between her and Ruby when a sudden thought came to her. A subject she once read upon, on how the things humans learn are being processed, while fast asleep. Teaching Ruby about the subjects at school, while she was asleep? It certainly was worth a try and would save the girls from a lot of headaches the coming week. With that in mind, Weiss deepened her mental connection to Ruby and began whispering into her mind.


	2. Chapter 2

"Blake? I think your plan worked a little too well." Weiss commented, as she, Blake and Yang watched their team leader lying on the ground, holding her considerable swollen stomach.

~Or rather, my plan worked far too well.~ the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company thought to herself. ~I have heard of people learning algebra via hypnotism or suddenly being math geniuses after recovering from brain damage, but this?~

"She only answered about a quarter of the questions wrong." Blake voiced her thoughts. "I didn't think of her to make such headway so fast."

"Never get between my sister and her cookies." Yang chuckled, kneeling down next to her sister, who let out a moan and looked towards her sister. The older sister gently took the younger one's hand and smiled down at her.

"Cookies?" Ruby asked with a hopeful tone in her voice.

"She still wants more?" Weiss asked in disbelief.

"Nope, sorry Ruby." the blonde shook her head gently. "You ate all the cookies."

"Aww."

Yang didn't mention that there was technically still Ruby's secret (not so anymore) stash of cookies, which the rest of Team RWBY discovered the other day. They relocated it from under the floorboards to a corner in Yang and Blake's personal closet. Ruby shared one with Weiss incidentally.

"Come on, Rubes. Let's get you to the nurse's office." Yang slowly picked up Ruby in bridal style, before standing up and heading towards the door. "Hopefully they'll have something for your stomach ache."

"Nooooo~, no medicine," Ruby complained with a cute moan. "Medicine not yummy! Me wants cookies!"

"Nope," Yang emphasized the p in the word and walked out of the room, leaving Blake and Weiss behind.

"Well...that happened," Blake commented.

"You'd think I'm used to their behavior by now." Weiss shook her head. "Well, at least it looks like we don't have to worry about our leader's grades anymore. Speaking of grades, I think I'll review basic battle strategies one more time. Goodwitch' theoretical tests have always been the hardest of them all."

"Yeah, you're right." Blake nodded. "We shouldn't slack off, just because one of us needs help. I'm gonna go to the library for a bit. See you later."

Weiss simply nodded towards her sister's partner, as the hidden Faunus also left the room. The heiress of the biggest dust company in all of Remnant placed herself on the study desk, gathering her materials to study.

~Terran stomachs, weak. Storage of nutrients inefficient. Many materials wasted. Can improve.~

~Not now, Abathur.~ Weiss complained inwardly. ~I am rather busy right now, as I told you about a hundred times!~

~Queen can use swarm memory. Efficient. Infinite.~ The gene master argued.

~I know of the benefits of the swarm memory! However, as I have also told you multiple times before, I want to improve myself on my own accord.~

~Terran physiology limited. Improvement capacity limited. Swarm unlimited.~

~Urrgh, we don't have time for any physical improvements! How about you focus on your work, instead of complaining about our inferior biology?~

~Cannot create more test subjects. Essence required from source. Hair samples not enough.~

~And what exactly do you plan to do with the "essence" of my teammates?~ Weiss asked, knowing fully well how her gene master normally absorbed essence for her swarm.

~Normal absorption method results in death of subject. Found solution. Can copy strains from subject without endangering life. Process not instantaneous. Takes time.~

~...I see. And just how long would it take?~

~No reference. No experience. Need subject.~ Came the response from the gene master.

Weiss sighed at the information she was given. She had hoped that the hair samples she collected from her teammates would be enough, seeing Abathur did manage to include the semblance of her teammates in some of the Zerg units. However, for some reason, there was not enough essence in these hair strands to fully integrate the strains into the swarm. Why things were like they were was beyond Weiss' comprehension. Abathur had tried to explain it to her, but the heiress was sure that even the smartest people in Atlas would not understand a word that the worm had uttered. They'd probably be more interested in his inner workings, than his words anyways.

~I'll see what I can do. For now, use what you have and do NOT disturb me anymore, unless it is absolutely necessary!~

XXX

The rest of the week went as followed. After Ruby received her medication, she felt better the following day and the girls made sure not to overfeed her again, during their questioning sessions. Yang told the others that the nurse at first thought that Ruby was feigning her sickness, due to the upcoming tests. Apparently, a lot of students did it, in order to avoid taking part in those. Or at least they tried. Some even went as far as to injure themselves during training exercises. Luckily the nurse was kind enough to actually give Ruby the medication, after a brief check up that is.

Fighting classes were canceled for the week in order to give the students more study time. Weiss continued to use her psychic abilities at night on Ruby, which in return helped the girl during the day. The poor, naive child didn't suspect a thing after previously hard topics suddenly were so easy for her to pick up on. Blake and Yang suspected Ruby did have the brains to pull all of this off and just needed the right motivator, that being sweet, baked goods in this case. Weiss simply kept up her usual demeanor and played along with the reasoning of her other team members.

The day before the test was a little different, however. Mainly Teams RWBY and JNPR had to calm their leaders down, as both of them had a bad case of mental breakdown. Both Jaune and Ruby hugged each other tightly, crying literal streams of tears and rambled on and on, on how they would fail, disowned by their families, thrown to the Grimm and from there on it just became nonsensical. It took hours to break them apart and even longer to calm them down.

Thus the week of the test came by. If Weiss was honest with herself, she didn't find those tests any hard, quite the contrary actually. She didn't know what her fellow teammates were complaining about. Heck, even Blake complained every now and then about those tests and next to Weiss she was the smartest first-semester student. But then again, no one expected of the Faunus to be perfect in every way, like it was expected of a Schnee. Yang was pretty quiet through the entire week, here and there cracking the one or other terrible pun, but overall was more reserved and focused on her tests. Ruby? She "drowned" her despair in cookies, before she begged her teammates to go over the topics of the following day's test one last time with the cookie reward method. It certainly didn't get boring for Team RWBY.

After the last exam of the week on Friday, you could feel a general relief going through the entire school. The students generally were (mostly) in a better mood than they had been the past weeks. A few people were still down, thinking that they had failed spectacularly, but most students didn't even want to hear the word "test". Most however relinquished at the fact that the dreaded week of tests was finally over and talked about the plans they had for the short break they were given before the next semester would start. The same went for most members of RWBY.

"Mnngh, yeah! It's finally over!" Ruby exclaimed from the top of her makeshift bunk bed, stretching her arms all the way up to the ceiling, until her fingertips were only about half a meter or so away from it.

"Yeah…" Blake let out a sigh, flipping a page in her book. "It was certainly harder than I expected it to be."

"Dad did say that those tests are brutal, but damn." Yang rubbed her forehead, lying on top of her own bed. "I know being a huntress isn't all about beating the living shit out of Grimm, but really? Do I really need to know each and every plant that's growing in Atlas?"

"You never know. Imagine you get send on a mission in Atlas territory and get severely injured during that mission. Knowing which plant is poisonous and which accelerates your healing properties is very handy in a situation like this and similar ones." The cat Faunus explained from underneath.

"And once again, logic proves to be my greatest enemy," Yang said in a joking tone. "So, any of you got any plans now that we're free?" the blonde brawler asked.

"Not really," Ruby admitted. "Maybe we should go to Vale and have some fun."

"Heh, with our luck, we'll probably run into Torchwick again," Yang commented holding up a hand. "Is there even a Dust Shop left, which he hasn't robbed?"

Hearing the topic switching to Torchwick, Blake closed her book and sat upright on her bed. "I still don't get why the White Fang is working for him and for what they actually need that much dust?"

"Ammo? Obviously." Yang pointed out.

"No." Blake shook her head, even though only Weiss could see her. "The White Fang have not nearly enough members for such a great amount of dust. Most of it is just going to lie around in storage. Aside from not having enough members, the White Fang almost never attacks out in the open."

"It's like they're preparing for a war," Weiss commented letting out a sigh. "Something that is stupid, considering their low numbers. However, they do have an impact on the economy. Dust prices have risen, mostly in Vale, but it also has an impact on the other Kingdoms. Plus the people in Vale are distraught that the police didn't manage to catch Torchwick as of yet. Not surprising, considering he fights with the skill of a Hunter. I guess their goal is more to cause chaos and unease among the populace, rather than use the dust."

"Urgh, can we not talk about the White Fang?" Ruby complained from atop. "I'm not saying it's not a problem, but how about we relax, have some fun and work on our team attacks!"

"Team attacks?" Weiss, Yang, and Blake asked at the same time.

"Yup!" Ruby sat up on her bed and pulled a paper from under her pillow. "So far we have been mostly fighting on our own, with a few exceptions, like on the first day, when Weiss catapulted me up into the air with her semblance. So I thought to myself: "We definitely need more moves!" and came up with a few names and attacks. It's far from finished, though, so I thought we could sit together and come up with some team attacks."

"As childish as that sounds…"

"Hey!"

"...it's actually a pretty good idea," Blake commented.

"See!"

Weiss and Yang gave each other a look, the later shrugging. "Fine with me."

"...Well, I suppose it's worth giving a shot." Weiss conceded.

"YES!" Ruby jumped off her bed and landed in the middle of the room, her face beaming at everyone in her sight. "This is going to be so awesome! So, I have thought of something like White Rose, where-"

"Ruby." Weiss stood up and also walked into the middle of the room until she stood right in front of the girl. "I know I already gave my approval to the idea, however, I must ask you to stop for now."

"Aww, but why?" Ruby asked, giving Weiss her infamous puppy dog eyes. Almost instinctively, the white haired girl looked away in order to not be affected by the psychological attack.

The heiress took in a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment, before continuing. "I'm sure you all remember, when back at the harbor I said as a Team, we shouldn't have any secrets from each other. Well, so far, I have been pretty hypocritical of this statement."

That sentence immediately got the attention of her fellow teammates. Yang rolled around in her bed, in order to get a good look at what was going on at the lower levels, while Blake disembarked from her bed, curiosity and fear equally accumulating in her stomach.

"Weiss…?" Ruby asked carefully, but the white clothed girl didn't look into her leader's eyes.

"If not for the test, which we just finished, I would have told you all sooner." She chuckled a little. "But, since we're done with those as of today, I have run out of excuses to keep my conscious calm."

"You have a conscious?" Yang asked with a chuckle. In response, her fellow teammate glared up at her.

"Calm down." the brawler held up her hands. "Just trying to lighten up the mood, before everyone gets all moody."

Multiple groans followed that statement.

"In any event" Weiss tried to keep her composure up "as you have guessed by now, Blake isn't the only one who has been hiding something from you." Weiss looked to the ground. "I don't blame any of you for being angry at me, especially you Blake, after I firstly reacted so poorly to you being a Faunus." The black and white clothed girls looked at each other.

"That's alright." the cat faunus replied. "It's not like I was any better when I first met you. Not to mention, you have a legitimate reason to hate the White Fang."

Weiss allowed herself to smile a little. "Thank you, Blake, but it still doesn't excuse my behavior for keeping a secret from you for so long, especially after I of all people said we shouldn't do exactly that."

"So...are you a secret faunus as well?" Ruby asked carefully, to which Weiss simply deadpanned at her leader.

"No."

"You're not actually a Schnee?" Yang asked.

"No."

"You're a child from outside of marriage?" Blake tried.

"If only things were that easy." Weiss sighed. "Look, this is not something I can simply tell you, this is something I need to show you."

"Show us?" Blake asked.

Weiss nodded. "Without showing you physical proof, you will just denounce me as a lunatic."

"Don't be silly, Weiss." Ruby immediately retorted. "We will never think of you like that."

"Believe me, Ruby, even you will think of me that way if I just come out like this." the heiress crossed her arms, looking down and closing her eyes. "I know I'm asking much, but I need you to wait until tomorrow, where I'll show you my secret, which is hidden around twenty miles south to Beacon."

"Twenty miles?!" the three other girls exclaimed.

Weiss nodded. "We can easily cut ten of them, by traveling by train to an outpost town, but the rest we'll need to walk the rest." She looked up to her teammates. "I know if we consider the average human walks three miles per hour and Grimm attacks, we'll need about three to five hours. But I wouldn't ask this of you if it wasn't absolutely necessary."

The other three girls looked at each other. On the one hand, this was Weiss they were talking about, the girl who is always serious and always had a reason behind whatever she was doing. On the other hand, the girls asked themselves what could be so important that they had to go on a ten-mile walk into Grimm infested territory?

"Well, I guess we'll be going on a camping trip over the weekend." Ruby declared. Weiss wasn't surprised by this one bit. Yang and Blake, however…

"You got me curious, snow queen. Besides, it's been awhile since our last camping trip." Yang crossed her arms and nodded.

Weiss turned her attention towards the final girl, Blake, who had her eyes closed, not showing any emotion. The faunus could feel the gazes of her fellow teammates resting on her but didn't let it faze her. Eventually, she opened her eyes and nodded at Weiss. "I'll go too. But we should prepare for every eventuality. That means telling the teachers where we're going for our camping trip, in case something goes wrong."

"Of course. I don't doubt they'll allow it since it's close to a settlement. Our scrolls should have no problem getting a signal, in case we need to call for help."

XXX

Surprisingly, it took an entire hour until Team RWBY got the okay from Professor Goodwitch to go to their "camping trip". The professor firstly went through the latest Grimm reports, wanting to be sure that the local Grimm activity was low enough for the first year students to handle and even then the Team was forced to make contact to Beacon every three hours. Apparently, there had been some unfortunate deaths in the past.

On the next day, Team RWBY took the earliest flight to Vale, from where they took the train for a short ride towards the outpost town Weiss mentioned. It was built next to a dust mine, so the town in itself appeared rather crude and industrialized. However, the team didn't get a good look at it, as, after a rather short night, they were more than eager to see just what the heiress could be hiding in the middle of nowhere. None of them had any real idea, but here they were, weapons loaded, backpacks packed and on the way deep into the local forest.

And as far as the wilderness was concerned, it didn't take long until the first Beowulfs showed up and attack the group without warning. Reacting quickly, the team dropped their backpacks and jumped out of the way, causing four Beowulfs to crash into each other. Due to the lack of space, Ruby fought with her weapon in "rifle mode" and shot her enemies with big calibers, while jumping out of the way of nearby Grimm.

Yang, of course, was just Yang. She punched every Grimm that came into her field of vision. When an enemy came from behind, she simply punched seemingly nothing in front of her, using the recoil to her advantage to hit the enemy behind her hard with her elbow. She would then raise her arm to ninety degrees and shoot the Grimm's chin. Her bullets easily penetrated all the way through the head of the Grimm, ending its existence immediately.

Blake used both of her blades to fend off the wolf-like Grimm. Using her semblance to dodge attacks, she immediately counterattacked and slew the beasts with ease. As a former White Fang member, she had by far the most fighting experience out of everyone. Beowulfs were in Hunter circles considered the easiest Grimm out of all of them, the once beginners struggle against. So far only the Grimm had lost their limbs and heads in this fight and Blake planned to make sure it stayed that way.

Weiss used her family's semblance for increased mobility. She jumped over the opposing Grimm and mostly stabbed them from behind, having learned where exactly she needed to point her weapon at, to kill a Beowulf with one strike. When jumping out of the way wasn't an option, Weiss sprinted ahead and stabbed the Beowulf through the heart before its claw could rip her clothes apart. Although luckily, aura not only protected the user, but also the clothes the user was wearing.

The fight was over soon enough, with no one being hurt and the final Grimm corpses disappearing. "If only they wouldn't disappear like that. Their fur looks actually pretty comfortable." Yang commented, picking up her bag.

"Studying them would be a lot easier too," Weiss stated picking up her own bag. ~Not to mention their biomass would be a nice additional resource.~ She thought to herself.

The rest of the trip was mostly the same. The girls walked, made some small talk, Grimm attacked every other hour, but nothing too special like during the initiation happened.

At one point, Blake asked Weiss a rather peculiar question. "Weiss, are you sure you don't need a map to navigate through the forest?"

"Don't worry Blake. I know the way pretty well. If no more attacks happen, we will be there for about an hour or two."

"If you say so…"

XXX

After four hours of nonstop walking and fighting, Ruby demanded they take a break and eat something. Back in Beacon, they prepared sandwiches and devoured those now eagerly. The girls sat in a circle, silently enjoying their meal, well until Yang decided to break that silence.

"Hey Weiss, can you maybe give us a hint just where are we going and what we're looking for?"

The heiress resisted the urge to roll her eyes and simply answered: "We will be there when we'll be there. There's nothing specific in the area, so-" Weiss cut herself off for no apparent reason and looked around frantically.

The others were confused by her sudden behavior.

"What's wrong?" Ruby asked concerned, to which the older girl quickly shushed the younger one. Understanding the behavior, Blake listened intently with her increased sense of hearing, but couldn't make out any suspicious noises. "I don't hear anything." the faunus stated after some time. Weiss looked at her fellow teammate, before relaxing and sitting back down. "Sorry. It must have been my imagination."

"In that case, you were saying?" Yang asked.

"Right. As I was saying, there are no obvious clues to the location I'm leading you all. Unless you know what to look for, you'll just think of it as another patch of land."

"And you know what to look for," Blake stated. "Come to think of it, how will you be able to recognize it? I mean, when did you have the time to come here in the first place? How do you know it is still hidden there?"

"...I have a way of keeping this place in check from afar."

"You're being awfully secretive." Ruby pointed out.

"Please bear with me for a little longer." the heiress sighed. "I promise your patience will pay off in the end."

Although not satisfied with the explanation, Weiss' fellow teammates respected her wishes and didn't press on.

After finishing with their meal, Team RWBY continued on their trip with Weiss in the lead and the others following from behind. Ruby was practically skipping through the forest, humming a little tune to herself. Yang kept her eyes open, expecting another Grimm attack any moment since it had been a while since the last one. Blake did the same, however, her actual focus was somewhere else. She had been worried from the very beginning, but now that they were getting close to the reveal, the faunus wondered more and more just what the heiress could be hiding. If she didn't know better, the faunus would think that the heiress was leading them to an Atlas ambush, in order to get Blake arrested. But that thought was just ridiculous.

Eventually, Weiss stopped dead in her tracks, causing Ruby to bump into her back.

"We're here." The clad white girl announced.

"Huh?" Ruby and the rest looked around, yet there was literally nothing outstanding. Trees, moss, dirt, a few leaves on the ground, but nothing special.

"There's...nothing here." Yang pointed out lamely, to which Weiss only scoffed.

"I told you, no one would notice this place, unlike you know what to look for."

"And what exactly are we looking for here?" the brawler inquired.

"You'll see soon enough." the heiress replied. "Also, do me a favor and don't kill any of them."

"Kill?" Ruby asked.

"Any of them?" Blake echoed.

As soon as those two finished, a rumble could be heard coming from the ground. Cracks began to appear on the surface of the earth. Out of instinct Ruby, Blake and Yang readied their weapons, however, Weiss stretched her arm in front of her teammates, which prevented them from shooting the three Zerglings that appeared out of the ground. Three out of four members of Team RWBY immediately took on fighting stands. Weiss was the only exception, for she had her weapon sheathed and was approaching the Zerglings at a leisure pace.

"Weiss, what the heck are you doing?!" Yang shouted, but the heiress already stood in front of her troops. The heiress of the Schnee Dust Company stretched out her hand and slowly stroked the middle Zergling's head. It let out a low growl, which was pretty similar to a purring cat, only more aggressive. The other two Zerglings came near Weiss and slowly rubbed their heads against the girl's legs.

"Uh...Weiss?" Ruby spoke up carefully. "What. Are. Those. Things?" Ruby pointed a finger at the Zerglings, speaking each word carefully. The white haired girl turned around and found her teammates staring at her with wide eyes.

"Are those...what you were talking about?" Yang asked, still keeping her arms up.

"Well…" Weiss put a finger under her chin. "They're...part of it."

"Part of it." Blake echoed with her usual deadpan voice.

"A very small part of it," Weiss emphasized each word in the sentence. She then pointed towards the hole where the Zerglings came from, which revealed a huge tunnel going underground. "The rest is waiting underground."

"The rest?" the trio of teammates inquired.

Just as soon as they said that, more creatures appeared from underground. Not only were there more Zerglings, but also Roaches and Hydralisks. Ruby, Blake and Yang stood now back to back to each other. Weiss sighed at their reaction. At least none of them had shot one of her children yet.


	3. Chapter 3

With Weiss in the lead and a small army of insectoid monsters surrounding them, Weiss lead Team RWBY deeper into the woods. Her friends had their individual drawn, with the safeties off. The heiress couldn't blame her friend's cautious behavior, quite the contrary, she would be worried if this wasn't the case. Blake, in particular, had her eye darting around each individual Zerg that happened to come into her vision.

Ruby was faring even worse. She had her weapon in gun mode and aimed it at every Zerg that came even remotely close to her. Weiss didn't need to read the younger girl's eyes to know that she was nervous. She had it written all over her face. Her sister Yang was doing a better job at hiding her emotions, though her eyes were what betrayed her. They'd turned red a while ago and refused to return to their usual lilac color so far. Red eyes normally meant an angry or at least agitated Yang. Neither scenario was especially delightful. The blond was also staying very close to Ruby, never being more than three steps away from her sister.

"Weiss…" Blake spoke carefully as if she was afraid to agitate the creatures surrounding them. "...what...are those things?" she asked, having her weapon pointed at one of the Hydralisks.

"They're called Zerg," Weiss informed her Faunus.

"Zerg?" Blake repeated. "I have...never heard the name."

"I would be surprised if you would," Weiss stated, not turning her head around.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Blake, I know all of you have answers, but please wait just a little bit longer until we arrive at our destination."

"Speaking of destination, where exactly are we going?" the blonde brawler spoke up, eyeing one of the Roaches suspiciously.

"The Hive Cluster or to put it into simple terms the nest."

"THE NEST?!" All three girls exclaimed.

"Why are we going to the nest of these...what did you call them again?"

"Zerg, Ruby. And before you ask, I didn't come up with the name. As for why they're bringing us to their nest, is because we'll be saved from the Grimm there. I would like to tell you everything without being interrupted every five minutes by a pack of Beowulfs, thank you very much."

"Yeah, we'll be safe from the Grimm," Yang admitted, easily seeing how these Zerg thingies could easily tear apart some unfortunate Grimm. "But what about them?"

"Don't worry." Weiss waved off. "If they wanted to kill us, we would be torn to pieces already."

"How can you be so sure?" Ruby asked.

"We're alive, aren't we?" Weiss asked, a little sarcasm sneaking into her voice. "Plus, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't allow me to do this if they were hostile towards us." She headed over to a nearby Hydralisk and started stroking it's back in circles. The creature seemed delighted by the attention it was getting. It let out a low hiss and gently rubbed its head against the arm of the heiress. By now the others weren't surprised anymore.

"This is so messed up," Yang muttered under her breath, putting a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Don't get any ideas, Ruby."

The girl in question spun around, surprised. "I-I wasn't going to pet one of them!"

"Sure, you weren't. You had that look on your face."

"What look?"

"The look you get, whenever you get to see a new weapon."

"I DON'T HAVE A WEAPON FE-!"

"Will you two cut it out?!" Weiss shouted, irritated.

"She started it!" Ruby pointed an accusing finger at her sister while pouting like she was five years old. The white haired girl facepalmed and shook her head, wondering for the umpteenth time how she came to respect Ruby as a leader.

The team ventured further into the forest, with the trees becoming denser and denser. It became hard to walk on foot through the treelines. The Roaches couldn't follow the main group anymore, at least not the normal way. Instead, they borrowed themselves underground, completely vanishing from sight. The Zerglings still managed to pass through and the Hydralisks even seemed to have the advantage in this terrain. Team RWBY remained quiet through most of the journey, only occasionally making a comment here and there.

Eventually, they found themselves in a clearing, where they made a very peculiar discovery on the ground. It was a violet colored, fleshy substance, which raised and lowered itself on a small scale as if it was breathing like a normal living being.

"What the hell is that?!" Yang exclaimed pointing in front of the group.

"I think I'm gonna throw up…" Blake muttered, already holding a hand in front of her mouth.

"Just imagine it's...jelly?" Ruby smiled carefully, only earning a groan from her sister and Blake.

"Not helping, Ruby." the faunus replied, a burp escaping her mouth.

Weiss in the meantime ignored the conversation of her fellow teammates and continued walking. Once she was only a couple of steps away, the girl stopped and decided to take off her high heel boots, revealing that she wasn't wearing any socks. With the pair of boots in her arms, the future CEO of SDC entered the creep field and let out a content sigh.

"Oh yes! My feet were killing me!" The white-clad girl moaned, enjoying the soft touch of the fleshy Creep. Unseen by the others, the substance began to massage her feet a little bit by putting pressure on key points from underneath.

"Wha-?! Weiss?! What are you doing?!" Blake exclaimed, her disgust loud in clear in her voice.

"Why are you going barefoot?" Was their leader's question.

But once again, Weiss ignored them. She didn't think that it was necessary to answer any more unnecessary questions. Without even as much as a glance, the heiress walked ahead, expecting her team to follow. And follow they did. She could hear everyone's footsteps on the Creep, which sounded like they were going through a field of soaking wet sponges. In less than a minute the first Zerg structures came into view. Static defenses to be precise, in the form of multiple Spine- and Sporecrawlers. The Spines had about the height of a two-story tall, building, while the Spines cut it in about 1.5 times of a normal human house. They were strategically positioned in front of a cave entrance. The huge Spines turned their attention towards Team RWBY, pointing their dangerous weapons at the team, but didn't attack. Ruby, Yang, and Blake stopped in their tracks as soon as they saw the first one moving. Weiss turned around, deciding that this was as good of a spot as any other. She mentally ordered her army to set up a defensive perimeter. The rest of RWBY watched closely as the Zerg seemingly disappeared back into the woods.

"Well then" Weiss announced, "I would love to give you all a proper tour through the Hive, but I'm afraid that at least one of you is going to explode unless I start explaining myself."

"About time," Yang muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.

Blake was about to ask the first question but was immediately cut off, when she noticed something growing out of the ground. In a matter of seconds, four fleshy thrones grew out of the creep, hardening themselves in the air almost instantly. Weiss walked around the one in front of her and took a seat, putting one leg above the other.

"Please, have a seat." she motioned at the other thrones. "There's no need for us to stand around all day."

"Cool!" Ruby cheered. The girl used her speed semblance to quickly sit down on one of the chitin-plated thrones. "Ooooh, it's so comfyyyyy." The girl cooed. "Yang, Blake! You have to sit on one of those! They're really great!"

"And not freaky at all," Yang said to Blake, who now had a really uncomfortable expression on her face.

"It's not like we have much of a choice. At least if we want to get answers."

Reluctantly Yang and Blake made their way towards the two empty thrones. Yang sat down on the throne, so she'd directly face Ruby, while Blake was on the opposite side of Weiss.

"So...uh…" Ruy began but was immediately at a loss for words.

"How about What the hell is going on, ice queen?" Yang asked with one of her rare serious expressions.

"Hmm…" Weiss pushed a stray hair away from her vision, before answering. "I guess it would be better if I first tell you my story of how I met the Zerg before I answer any specific questions."

"That would be helpful." Blake agreed. "But aren't we exposed here to possible Grimm attacks?"

"No," Weiss answered without missing a beat. "Any Grimm that comes within a ten-mile radius of this Hive is being eliminated."

As if to underline her words, a Nevermore came crashing down right behind her with poisonous Spines sticking out of its body. The creature already started disappearing seemingly into thin air and was gone in a matter of seconds. Only the Spines, which it had been shot with, remained and dropped to the ground, where they were absorbed by the Creep.

"Okay...that happened," Yang commented. "How'd he die anyways?"

"He was shot down." Weiss crossed her arms. "The Zerg do not lag anti-air units. You have seen the Hydralisks?"

"Hydra-what?" Ruby failed to repeat the word.

"Oh, excuse me. I forgot for a moment we're starting from scratch. The Hydralisks are the snake-like creatures. They can shoot spines out of their massive foreheads, which are not only poisonous but also can penetrate metal." Weiss looked up from her crossed arms and looked at each of her teammates. "Now if I just answer random questions that pop up in your head, we won't get anywhere. So I think it's best if I tell you everything from the very beginning like I said earlier…"

/X/

10 years ago, Atlas Airport, Private Bullhead of the Schnee Dusk Company

~"My father was never too fond of leaving Atlas, let alone go to the lower parts of the city. He sees himself above the low commoners and couldn't care less about them. However what he does care about is what those and I quote 'Lowly Commoners' think about our family or should I say himself. Public appearances were always planned out weeks, at times months in advance. The time, when we went on vacation was no different. My family owns a villa, there's really no other way on calling it, way up in the mountains and we were going to spend the next two weeks there.

We already appeared in front of the cameras, my siblings and I looked good in front of the Cameras, let the press take some pictures of us, my father said some words and at the time we were just waiting for the pilot to get permission for taking off.

My brother was sleeping somewhere in the front if I remember correctly. My older sister Winter was reading a book and I myself was simply looking out of the window, watching the planes and bullheads land and take off.

Eventually, it was our turn. I briefly remember father mentioning something about firing the pilot because we took off so late. He's sometimes...not the most reasonable man. Mostly when something is going wrong with the company.

On the flight, there were four more bullheads, which were hired by a private security firm. Not to repel any kind of Grimm mind you, the military keeps the skies around Atlas clear. No, my father was expecting the White Fang to come with their own bullheads and shoot us down. Well, shot down we were, but not by the White Fang, but rather by something out of our control: meteorites. Tiny meteorites, which entered our planet's atmosphere and by pure chance damaged the engines so much that we were going down fast. In fact, we dropped so fast, I barely had the time to scream until we hit the ground. Or rather, the mountain..."~

Six-year-old Weiss Schnee groaned, her tummy feeling like it's been riding the new roller coaster at the Atlas Park, which her daddy didn't allow her to ride in. Did they already land? She must have fallen asleep during the flight again and Winter was probably about to wake her up soon. Well, Weiss would show her big sis that she could wake up on her own. She just needed to open her eyes, easy enough and-

Little Weiss screamed. The entire front of the Bullhead was gone! The girl had a full view of the mountain range in front of her. The sun was already setting, snow was falling and a cold wind, which Weiss just now noticed, was hitting her face. The snowflakes felt like glass shards being thrown directly at her.

"Help!" She screamed. "Winter! Daddy! Where are you?! Help me! Please! Help me!"

But nobody came.

Luckily for little Weiss, she was still strapped into her seat or else she might have fallen down the cliff in front of her. Because due to her panic, the little girl was not only screaming louder than the human eardrum could endure, she was also throwing a tantrum, thrashing her body as much as she was able to do. This didn't last for long, as the cold temperature quickly drained most of the little girl's strength. It somehow had also the very fortunate side effect of calming her down enough to think at least partially rationally. She was a Schnee, so naturally, she was smarter than all the other children in the world. Firstly, she needed to get out of the seat belt. Oh, but why oh why was it so difficult to get out of those dumb things? To make things even worse, the cold air cooled down the steel parts of the thingie, making it even harder for the girl to escape. Her fingers felt stiff and her hands kept shaking like leaves in the autumn wind.

Finally, after a seemingly endless struggle, Weiss was proud to know a lot of smart words, the girl managed to free herself from the grasp of...that evil thing. She jumped off her seat, only to slip on the frozen carpet of the second half of the Bullhead.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow! Daddy! Winter!"

But nobody came.

Winter slowly managed to get up, after falling three more times mind you, and looked around. She couldn't see much, but even she could figure out that she was on one of the mountains, which was placed directly in between of Atlas and the original destination.

"WINTER!"

Weiss' voice echoed throughout the mountains, repeating itself a couple of times. But again, nobody came. She was alone. She knew it, but that didn't mean that she accepted it. She wouldn't cry. She couldn't cry! She was a Schnee! Daddy would be disappointed! And Weiss didn't like it when her Daddy was disappointed.

With those thoughts in mind, Weiss carefully made her way around the wreckage and started walking down the mountain.

/X/

"Ruby, remember when we talked about personal space?"

"Mhm."

"Good. Remember what I said back then."

"Mhm."

"Good. So would you be so kind to get off my lap and stop hugging me?!"

"Nope."

"What?!"

"Nope."

"Why?"

"Because you need this!"

"I do not need this, you dunce!"

/X/

Young Weiss had been walking for what felt like hours, though it only were twenty minutes. The girl desperately tried to keep herself warm by rubbing her arms, but it just did not work. The wind was going faster than before, the sun was almost gone and the girl was hopelessly lost wherever she was.

Weiss was tired, cold and hungry. Why wasn't the cake butler around? Where was Winter, who kept her company whenever she felt down? Why couldn't Whitely be useful for once and bring Daddy to her?

She couldn't go on anymore. She collapsed on her knees and fell face first into the snow. This was all a bad dream. It had to be a bad dream. After she closed her eyes, surely she would be woken up by her older sister Winter, who would tell her that they arrived at their destination.

Sleep...just sleep…

~"Maybe if I had been older I wouldn't have left the Bullhead. Maybe I would have been smart enough to go to the back, where there was still the toilette. It wouldn't have been comfortable, but at least I would have been safe from the weather.

But I didn't think that far at the time. It was probably for the better. When you wake up after a crash landing, with half of the Bullhead gone, you don't expect the others to have survived. They are all alive, don't worry. But any reasonable person would have thought the opposite and if I would have accepted this as a fact, well, I probably would have been frozen to death, while losing myself to the feeling of despair.

Of course, my actual situation wasn't much better. I was a child lost in the middle of nowhere. So far it looked like I had been lucky, considering the circumstances. No Grimm had attacked me so far. And as it turned out, there was a reason for the lack of Grimm on this particular mountain. This is the same reason as to why I am alive today and not some lost, frozen corpse."~


	4. Chapter 4

~"As you can see, I am very much alive and not a frozen corpse. Meaning I was saved. As to by whom I was saved that day? Well, the answer should be pretty obvious."~

Ten years ago, Mt. Oum

The crash of the Terran machine didn't go unnoticed by the inhabitants of the mountain. Quite the contrary actually. They had been watching the entire area, because of the recent activities from space, namely several meteors entering the atmosphere of the planet. While the Hive may be well hidden and protected inside a remarkably huge cave system, they decided to be cautious and watch the oncoming rock bombardment. Luckily it was soon discovered that most of the meteorites were too small to actually reach the ground, before burning out in the atmosphere of the planet. The ones that were big enough to actually come through, would be too small to damage any of the Zerg structures if they even hit the immediate area, which they didn't. What one of the smaller rocks did manage to hit was one of the Terran flying vehicles, which class had yet to be identified.

Normally the swarm would dismiss such an unfortunate accident as not relevant, however, the opposite was the case this time. The craft just happened to land nearby the Zerg's main base of operations on this planet, which led the hive mind to the decision to investigate the crash site. Quickly a small group of Zerglings with the Metabolic Boost mutation were sent out to investigate the craft. With a speed that could rival most known Terran standard vehicles, the Zergling's made their way to their objective, guided by the Overlords, their equivalent to the Terran GPS, only more reliable.

It didn't take long for the Zerglings to arrive at the scene. Initially, they approached the site through some nearby bushes, in order to avoid possible detection by enemy forces. However, as it turned out this proved to be a useless endeavor. The vehicle had been abandoned by its occupants. It appeared that the Terrans successfully managed to evacuate the transport craft before it crashed on top of the mountain. The Hive Mind deemed it both unsafe and unnecessary to further investigate the craft and ordered the Zerglings to return.

As the pack made their way, one of the Zerglings sniffed a particular mixture of scents out of the air. Most of them came from the surrounding terrain, leaves, trees etc. Others could not be identified by name, but only their chemical composition. There was one specific scent that stood out, though. Granted it was always a little different, but this was unmistakably the scent of a human. Once this information reached the Hive Mind, it immediately gave new orders to the Zerglings, namely finding the human, but keeping a certain distance from them. The pack was to observe the human and await new orders.

Finding the human wasn't all that hard, seeing as it didn't move from its position. The reason for that became apparent rather quickly. The Zerglings moved as quickly and as silently as it was possible for them, not wanting to possibly startle the human. Hiding behind every bit of terrain, such as bushes and whatever small tree grew up this high in the mountains, the scent becoming stronger and stronger with each passing moment. The objective of the Zerglings came into visual range only a few minutes after they picked up the scent.

It turned out that the scent had come from a lone female Terran, which was lying on the ground. It or rather she was very small, indicating that she was not a fully grown specimen. This or she was suffering from a genetic defect. Terrans were inefficient after all. Inefficiency aside, Terrans normally didn't exhibit the habit of leaving their young behind, sometimes even if it was necessary for survival. As such, seeing one lonely youngling threw up a few questions. Where were her parents? Were they on the way here or were they still trying to locate the crashed machine?

Whatever the reason, this child just became a security issue for the swarm. The probability was high that sooner or later adult Terrans would appear looking for the child. The Swarm's Hive Cluster was hidden very well, but the Hive Mind knew better than to underestimate Terrans as had been previously proven. Security measures had to be increased the very instant.

Back to the child, it had yet to move on her own. The Zerglings could see her body slowly rising and falling, meaning it was still alive, but without their power armors, Terrans were a fragile bunch. There was no doubt in the Hive Mind that the child would die soon if left to its own. Maybe this was for the better. Once the dead body of the child would be found, the Terrans no doubt would stop their search, meaning an increased chance of the Swarm Cluster to not be discovered. Normally the Hive Mind wouldn't even waste a second considering other option, however, matters were a little bit more complicated.

Due to some…"unfortunate" circumstances, the Hive Mind was currently leaderless. Well, that was not completely true, as there were some higher beings left, which had full control over the Swarm, the problem was they were not born to lead. Oh sure they could lead the Zerg into battle and use other strategies than "attack until it drops dead", but there were certain traits which were required for a leader to have, which none of them possessed.

As such, a rather unconventional decision was made. The Zerglings were to pick up the human and bring it back to the Hive Cluster, alive. The Zerglings didn't mind the order. They didn't even have the brain capacity to mind. They were simple creatures made to scout areas, kill the enemies of the Swarm and throw their lives away for the survival of the Swarm.

Following the orders, one of the Zerglings approached the little girl, until it stood directly above her. The girl didn't react to the dangerous creature standing right next to her. She shivered a little, but this was mostly due to the wind, which had suddenly appeared, chilling the already cold body even further. Not wasting any more time, the Zergling roughly picked up the girl with its teeth and placed her on it's back. Well, that was the plan at least. In reality, all the Zerg managed to do was to tear the girl's clothes apart. Considering that Terrans needed those things in order to survive, this had been rather counterproductive. It took the combined effort of two Zerglings to put the girl on the third Zergling's back. They accomplished that by gently carrying the girl in their mouths on each end of her body. This resulted in her legs getting some rather nasty puncture wounds, which her neck luckily was spared from. There were still some bite marks though and frankly, it was a little miracle that the girl survived this treatment. On the other hand, the girl was now cold, with no way of keeping her warm in some way and bleeding.

With time no being on their side, the Zerglings, they took off towards the Hive Cluster. Unfortunately, they couldn't run at full speed since there was no way for the girl to hold onto the Zergling in her unconscious state.

/X/

"Wait, how do you know all of this if you were unconscious?" Blake interrupted Weiss' story, leaning forward on her living chair. The cat faunus had to admit, this thing was very comfortable, which didn't mean that she liked sitting on that thing or anything. It would have otherwise been...inconvenient.

Weiss, who was sitting comfortably on her own chair with her legs crossed, absentmindedly crawled the head of a Hydralisk, while answering. "I was actually going to get to this part right now. You see, most Zerg may be only useful for fighting purposes, there are some exceptions. Someone needs to lead these killing machines after all."

At a mental command, the local Hive Queen came out of the cave, casually approaching the four chairs outside. Ruby, Yang, and Blake eyed the new creature wearily, subconsciously reaching towards their weapons. Granted it looked rather clumsy and the girls could probably outmaneuver the things, but there were still more of those Zerg surrounding them right this very moment.

"This is the Queen of this particular nest. Her name is Syama."

"Greetings Terrans." The Zerg Queen greeted with a dry voice.

"IT CAN TALK?!" The non-infested girls exclaimed, throwing their arms up into the air and their eyes becoming completely white due to the dumbfounded shock. Weiss rolled her eyes at her team's antics.

"Really girls? It didn't even come to your mind that I might present a creature that can actually talk since this was only the topic I was currently talking about?"

"It appears Abathur was right. Terran brains are truly inefficient." The Queen commented off-handedly.

"Hey, are you saying we're dumb?!" Yang exclaimed, her shock being quickly replaced with anger.

"Yang, calm down," Weiss told her teammate. "Thank you for coming, Syama."

Syama simply made a short curtsy, before going back into the cave. In the meantime, Blake and Ruby also managed to catch themselves and were slowly sitting back down on their chairs.

"What was her deal?!"

"Relax Yang." Weiss groaned putting a hand on her forehead. "Don't let her comment get to you. Believe me, they're almost all like this."

"Tch." Yang pumped her fists together, glaring in the direction the Queen went.

"So, this was...the Queen of this nest, you said?" Blake asked for confirmation. Upon Weiss nodding, the faunus stated: "I guess one of those told you everything that happened?"

"Not exactly," Weiss admitted. "The swarm Queens usually don't talk too much. They mostly focus on their tasks of keeping their individual cluster running. The ones who told me what happened to me were the ones in charge of the Zerg."

/X/

~"I vaguely remember slipping in and out of consciousness from time to time. I remember being cold, feeling completely miserable...and yeah, that's about it. I must have been pretty close to dying, no surprise there. Luckily, the Zerg are surprisingly versatile, when it comes to survivability."~

Abathur was less than pleased with the state the small Terran had been brought to his Evolution Chamber. It was nothing unrepairable, but in his opinion healing the little girl would be a waste of biomass.

With the girl secured in two of his six arms, the worm-like Zerg creature violently removed the rest of the clothing, as it would only get in the way. Once this task was accomplished, he immediately crawled over to the pod he had prepared for the girl. The Gene Master could feel the blood pressure of the Terran simply by holding her and judging by how low it was, she had lost a critical amount of blood. Really, Abathur was expecting the girl to die any second now, but she managed to pull through somehow. The Gene Master made a mental note to check his own sequences, seeing as this was the second time he had been wrong about the survivability of humans. The first time had been on Cerus when the Queen of Blades entered the first Spawning Pool.

A green, transparent membrane grew above the girl, sealing the pot perfectly off. As soon as this was done, the pod filled with a Zerg liquid mixture, which was normally inside the eggs of growing Zerg units. There were some differences, for this girl was a special case, but in general, it was very much the same.

Once the pod was filled to the brim, Abathur began observing the changes the Zerg Virus did on the body, using his specifically designed eyes to take in every detail. It was at this stage where he would decide whether the girl would live or be turned into biomass the very instant. After he did some experiments with this specific Terran. Observation of the local Terrans had shown that they had abilities neither Terrans from the Milky Way or the Koprulu Sector possessed.

While he was observing the female Terran, Izsha, the Terran-snake-like being, which acted in a similar fashion to a Terran Adjutant, only better in her opinion, descended from the ceiling. She hovered just behind Abathur, looking at the pod the Gene Master was observing. The girl's face could be seen through the membrane, as it was floating pretty close to said membrane at the moment. From what Izsha knew of Terrans, this girl appeared to be sleeping peacefully, similar to a Terran-baby growing in the womb of a female Terran.

"Will she survive?" Izsha asked the Gene Master. Although she didn't doubt his abilities, there was always this one percent chance she counted into her calculation. The Queen of Blades once called it "Murphy's Law", which was another description of a certain Terran saying: Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Translated this basically meant it was best to be prepared for anything.

The Gene Master turned around upon being spoken to. "Damage not critical. Terran will recover. Zerg Virus exhilarates recovery. Pod supplies Terran with water, nutrients, and oxygen."

"I see." Izsha put one of her hair-claws on her chest. "And is she suitable for our needs?" The woman like Zerg-snake asked.

"Affirmative. Terran at pre-evolution stage of becoming psycher. Can finalize evolution. Zerg Virus helps. Establishes connection to Hive Mind."

"But if she is at the pre-evolutionary stage, she won't be as strong as Zagara, let alone the Queen of Blades." Izsha pointed out the flaw in the Terran female. Luckily, Abathur had solutions for this.

"Can artificially increase potential. Strong leader in short time. Limited options. Further growth slowed down.

Can infest Terran with evolutionary virus. Terran continues growing at normal rate. Leader growing strong takes longer. More possible mutations, greater adaptability.

Recommendation: Seek better specimen."

Izsha had listened intently to the solution of the Gene Master. At the suggestion of seeking a more gifted Terran however, she had to shake her head. "With have been leaderless for far too long. The more time passes, the higher the chance we return to a feral state. We'll have no choice but to take her. Our forces are too diminished to attack one of the human settlements to seek better-suited humans."

Abathur understood. Everything Izsha said was logical. If there was something the Gene Master outright feared it was to become feral once again.

"Awaiting orders. Chose proceedings."

Izsha didn't answer immediately, as this was a big decision to make. Both methods had their pros and cons to consider.

On the one hand, Abathur could probably accelerate the growth rate of the Terran female in order to be able to put more adjustments to her body. She wouldn't be as strong as the Queen of Blades, but she would be a force to be reckoned with. Plus Zerg never stopped evolving, so there was a chance she would become as strong as the Queen of Blades eventually. However, the growth rate would be significantly hurt, due to this being a child. Izsha didn't say she understood it completely, but apparently, from what she could gather from Abathur's thoughts, the sequences had to be manipulated in such a way that on the long run, their leader would have a harder time to grow in power. This could be also considered a good thing, as Zerg mutations often were triggered by severe stress, such as life-threatening situations.

On the other hand, Abathur could infest the Terran to a point where she would be technically a Zerg, but still, retain a lot of Terran sequences. From the outside, she would appear as human and would also grow as a human. Her power would grow slowly, but more significantly, which in the long run meant she would be much stronger, than if they gave her the full treatment now.

No matter the decision, the immediate threat would be dealt with, namely the swarm regressing into a feral state.

Izsha decided, before she gave her order, she would take a look at the memories of the child. What she found was interesting in its own right, but more important was what she didn't find. No tactical knowledge, no military or fighting experience, very limited knowledge of this world's military power and no combat experience. And these were just the biggest flaws the girl had.

However, these things could be worked out over time. A very interesting piece of information Izsha found was the existence of Huntresses and Hunters, elite warriors trained to fight against the forces of Grimm, the black animals which the Zerg had encountered on this planet. It was impossible to gather their essence, as their bodies somehow dissolved upon death. Catching one alive had proven to not solve the problem, as the biomass seemingly disappeared into nothingness, aside from their masks. Unfortunately, those were practically useless to Abathur.

Back to the matter at hand, Izsha had made a decision. "Proceed with the second option. The Terran isn't a special combat operative, like the Queen of Blades was before her infestation. However, through her memories, I found out that the local Terrans train their young to become elite warriors, who fight the foes we have encountered." Through the Hive Mind, Izsha showed Abathur what she had learned.

"Solution imperfect. Acceptable." Abathur conceded. "Train controlling Zerg via Hive Mind. Train fighting with Terrans. Infiltration mission. Learn strength and weaknesses of Terrans and Grimm." the green worm summarized Izsha's plan in his own unique way of putting things.

"Begin infestation."

/X/

"SAY WHAT?!" The non-infested of Team RWBY exclaimed in shock.

"T-they m-made you their leader?!" Ruby stuttered in shock.

Weiss nodded.

"But….err….you….how…." At this moment stopped working and was starting an emergency reboot.

Yang for once was at a complete loss for words. She was inwardly fighting with her emotions ranging from sympathy for her fellow teammate, because of what happened to her, to downright paranoia because of a lot of bad science-fiction movies.

Blake...she had a question. "So...uh….you're not going to impregnate us with your children, are you?"

Was that...longing? No, Weiss must have misheard. She certainly hoped she misheard. Of course, she could check, but er...after what she had seen in her brother's mind…

"Seriously Blake? THAT'S the first thing that comes to your mind? What kind of movies do you watch?"


	5. Chapter 5

Weiss carefully navigated her way through the large cave, where the Vale Hive had placed its primary cluster. Originally this cave hadn't been that big, but in order to properly hide from both Grimm and Human/Faunus sight, the Zerg had greatly expanded the cave system, building a literal labyrinth. Key structures, which were always needed, when leading a brood were hidden in the deepest parts of the tunnels. Everything else consisted mostly of different types of static defenses, including a literal wood consisting of nothing more than Spine Crawlers. Those made it even for some of the bigger Zerg difficult to walk through, but that was a prize Weiss was willing to pay for a "safe house", so to speak.

After a little more walking, Weiss arrived at the Evolution Chamber, a structure which took two entire rooms of the size of a regular Beacon Classroom. The inside actually looked like a sized down version of Abathur's evolution chamber, only there was an acid pool in the corner, primarily used to recycle failed experiments. The local Queen Syama was standing in front of a couple of eggs, inspecting them with a critical eye. Weiss approached the Queen and addressed her.

"Syama."

Said Zerg turned around and bowed respectfully.

"My Queen, has your conversation with the Terrans ended?"

In response, Weiss let out a humorless laugh. "I wish. I think their brains short-circuited a while ago and we decided to take a short break. Blake is right now calling Beacon Academy, simply to assure that we did not end up as Grimm food. But enough about this."

Weiss approached the eggs, which from the outside looked like ordinary Zerg eggs. Very carefully, she stroked with a hand over the shell. "These are the last batch of Zerglings that were augmented with Ruby's gene strain, correct?"

"Indeed." Syama nodded. "As you know, Integrating a semblance to our units is a surprisingly complicated process. I have integrated the necessary strains a week ago following Abathur's instructions of course. Yet they're only due to hatch in a few hours."

"Unacceptable." The Schnee heiress stated. "We need to improve the process. Being able to replenish our troops in a matter of minutes is our biggest advantage over the other races. We cannot lose it." The humanoid Zerg let go of the egg and turned her head to Syama.

"I trust the Nydus-Network has been re-established?"

"The worms are digging tunnels as we speak, my Queen. It will take them a little longer than usual."

Weiss nodded. "That is acceptable. As long as we avoid another cave in and inevitable destruction of the Network. Damn King Taijitu. How can one Grimm do so much damage?" the girl muttered the last part.

"Well, we didn't expect a Grimm to find the worms and since we had no defenses-"

"That was a rhetorical question." Weiss deadpanned at the Queen.

"Forgive me, my Queen."

"It's alright. Did Abathur leave you with some of Blake's and Yang's samples?"

The Queen slowly shook her head. "No. He said the samples were too sparse. Apparently, he needed all of them to make proper test subjects."

"Well, it wasn't exactly easy getting them." Weiss crossed her arms. "Blake being a Faunus notices every time I come close to her and Yang is so protective of her hair, I am literally risking my life here." The SDC heiress shivered just thinking about what the blonde girl would do to her if she ever found out about what Weiss had done.

Just as the heiress composed herself, an earthquake appeared seemingly out of nowhere, lasting for only a couple of seconds.

"Ah, I assume the Nydus Worms have finally arrived."

"No, my queen." Syama disagreed, her voice on edge. "They're still digging the tunnels. And I do not have any Zerg here capable of creating such an Earthquake."

Weiss' eyes widened at that. "Shit." she cursed, spinning around and running back to the entrance.

XXX

In the meantime on the surface, Ruby, Yang, and Blake were holding onto each other, even though the earthquake already stopped.

"Wow. That was a real shocker." Yang proclaimed, earning her groans from her fellow teammates.

"I didn't know there were occurrences of earthquakes in this region," Blake commented, slowly loosening her grip on the others. However, a second later she did the exact opposite, as the ground shook once again this time more violently than before.

"A-a-a-a-a-a-a-f-f-f-f-f-f-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ck-ck-ck-ck-ck-ck-ck-ck-ck-ck?-?-?-?-?" Ruby asked, her voice shaking, due to the tremors.

"What?!" the other two shouted over the noise or at least attempted to. There was just too much noise what with rocks falling off the nearby mountain, not to mention the screeching of the agitated Zerg creatures. Like in water, tiny waves rippled throughout the creep due to the constant shaking.

Speaking of the creep, it didn't exactly give the faunus and human siblings a good footing. As such it was to no surprise that after a particularly violent shake, all three girls fell to the ground. All three groaned in dismay, not because of the pain, but because of how sticky the creep was. Not only was it on their clothing, but it also stuck to their hair.

"Eugh. This will be a pain to get out." Yang mumbled to herself while making sure she was still holding her sister and her partner. In return, Blake and Ruby made sure to cling onto Yang's arms. Luckily for them, everything slowly but surely calmed down, until the shaking completely stopped.

The Zerg creatures had crouched down to the ground during both quakes, in order to not lose their own footing like Team RWBY just did. All of them stood back up to their feet or whatever equivalent they possessed. It could also be noted that the creatures were tense after the recent earth movement.

"We should look for a safe spot," Blake advised, getting up and helping her teammates. "It's not unusual for multiple aftershocks to occur after an earthquake."

As if to prove her point, the ground began to shake once again, more violent than the previous two times. And once again the three members of Team RWBY found themselves on the creep ground.

"You just had to jinx it!" Yang exclaimed, shooting Blake an angry look.

"Girls, look!"

Although it was hard to understand Ruby, the other two girls got the meaning of her words, due to the smallest girl pointing a finger to the west. What Ruby had spotted looked like the work of the biggest mole in existence. A massive amount of dirt, rocks, and creep was all piled up onto an at least 10-meter high hill and still growing. And it wasn't the only one. All around the nest more and more of those insane piles appeared from dirt being dug up from the underground.

"What the hell is going on?!" Yang exclaimed, desperately trying to get back on her feet.

The Zerg weren't particularly happy about everything too. The earthquakes already got them agitated, but the sudden appearance of those dirt piles almost turned them downright hostile. The insectoid aliens began surrounding the dirt piles to the best of their abilities, however getting up was a challenge in of itself, due to the shaky ground. Those who did make it, soon found an untimely death, due to multiple King Tajitus breaking through the ground, either sending the unfortunate Zerg flying or burying them under massive amounts of rock and dirt. The breakout sent one last shockwave across the ground, after which the earth finally stopped moving for good.

"Grimm!?" Ruby exclaimed. "King Tajitus?! And so many of them?!" As quickly as they could, the girls got up and drew their respective weapons.

"They're big too," Yang commented, searching for the best target to punch. "They look like they're at least twice as tall as our house."

"This is bad." Blake carefully aimed Gambol Shroud at one of the massive snakeheads, knowing full well she'd need to get a lucky hit on the eye to do any damage whatsoever. "Huge Grimm-like these aren't supposed to be even remotely nearby one of the Kingdoms. At least to what I have read."

"Well, looks like your books got it wrong this time," Yang commented.

The Zerg in the meantime had recovered from the shock blast and immediately started their counterattack. Zerglings being the fastest creatures in the current unit roster, swarmed the gigantic snake-like Grimm and began biting on their scaly exterior. The problem was that Grimm scales tended to be much tougher than most vehicle platings, especially when it came to the really old Grimm. As a result, it would have taken a lot of time for the Zerglings to kill the Grimm all on their own. Time the Grimm did not plan on giving the comparable minuscule creatures.

The King Tajitsu slammed it's body on the ground, flattening all the Zerglings in front of it. It then proceeded to swipe it's body over the floor, gathering many more Zerglings and smashing them all together, once they come into contact with a mountain. Similar tactics were utilized by other King Tajitus. Those that had no point of squashing the Zerglings, either tried to eat as many as possible, smashed their bodies multiple times to the ground or dug themselves out completely. The last option proved to be the most problematic one because as it turned out, the snake Grimm weren't the only ones attacking. Out of the holes appeared Deathstalkers, Beowulfs and even Ursars. To put the cherry on top, a considerable amount of Nevermores came flying from the southwest, rapidly approaching the hive cluster.

"This is a freaking army!" Yang exclaimed, killing an attacking Beowulf with a one-two punch combination.

"We need to get away! There are too many!" Blake shouted and began shooting into the ranks of the Grimm. "Plus, we need to warn the village."

"What about Weiss?" Ruby asked, shooting every Grimm that appeared between her crosshairs. "We can't just leave her here!"

"Maybe one of us should go looking for her?" Yang suggested, punching another Beowulf in the face.

Before a decision could be made, however, an Ursa Major had fought its way towards the trio of huntresses and forced them to dodge in very different directions. Each of them found themselves afterward in the middle of a fight between Grimm and Zerg, given them no chance to reform. For the moment the girls were forced to fight alongside the Zerg, which wasn't such a bad thing entirely.

The Hydralisks had been long since mobilized and moved into anti-air position to properly greet the nevermores, while Roaches acted as a shield against any ground Grimm that tried to get close to the softer snake-like creatures. A couple of Hydralisks, however, didn't move to the southwest, instead, they used the high ground to shoot their poisonous spines against the Grimm, focusing mostly on the King Tajitus. That being said, the Tajitus soon enough recognized the threat and their long bodies allowed them to reach the anti-air fighters of the Zerg and eat them with one bite. This didn't faze the local Zerg in the slightest. Each Hydralisk that was killed, was quickly replaced by a new one. Plus, reinforcements for all Zerg units appeared from out of the cavern, it what already appeared to be an endless stream of them.

Roaches proved to be very effective against the armored Grimm. Their acid ate through biological mass just as quick as it did with metal, nullifying a significant advantage the bigger Grimm usually possessed. This bone-like armor was, after all, bulletproof. The Roaches weren't done just yet, however. With their tunneling ability the Roaches that normally wouldn't have been able to attack, until one of their breather bit the dust, they appeared from the underground, surrounding the particularly large Grimm beasts and started spraying their acid on the enemy.

Team RWBY had no time to pay attention to such details. All of them were busy with their own fights, hacking, slashing and shooting whatever came in their way. Occasionally they would even hit or outright kill a Zerg on accident. Luckily for them, it didn't appear that the Zerg cared that much about friendly fire from their "allies" if RWBY could be called as such.

Speaking of the "W", Weiss finally managed to come out of the cave and came face to face with chaos itself. Many of her Zerg had fallen to the Grimm, their body parts and liquids being splattered all over the ground. At the same time, many dead Grimm already began disappearing into the black mist, blocking the Queen's line of sight in certain areas, thanks to the high amount of casualties.

Weiss didn't even try to suppress the growl that escaped her throat. She didn't know how the Grimm managed to assemble such a fighting force without anyone noticing and to be honest, she didn't care much either. What she did care about was that her home was being invaded, while at the same time her children were being slaughtered! These Grimm obviously had a death wish. And Weiss, the ever generous Queen would grant it to them.

Firstly she ordered some of the crawlers to reposition themselves in a more efficient manner. She also ordered every Zerg in the range of a King Tajitsu to attack the snake being immediate, since those had a bigger attack range than any of the stationary defenses. Finally, Weiss played her trump card. Although like any mother she didn't like sending her children to death, this was what was necessary right now. The Banelings, which had kept themselves hidden up until this point, unborrowed themselves and rolled in the direction of any large Grimm numbers. For the Grimm, those new enemies looked like easy pickings. That is until an Alpha Beowulf came into contact with a Baneling, which caused the rolling insect to go pop and the Beowulf to disappear in a pool of acid. It didn't even have the chance to scream. Other nearby enemies were also within spraying radius and experienced a rather painful demise. Armored Grimm, like Ursa Majors survived at the cost of their armor, making them easy picks for the other Zerg.

Weiss in the meantime wasn't just standing by idly. She rushed in right in the middle of the battlefield, ignoring the shouts of her leader and other teammates. There was no reason for her to hold back anymore. Her friends knew her secret and now she would show them just what she was really capable of.

She had no dust chamber selected, yet her blade was glowing in an icy blue light, similar to her eye color. The Grimm felt her rage, which caused three young Beowulfs to straight up jump at her with raised claws. With a single motion of her blade, the three monsters were beheaded, before they could even reach her. From an outsider's perspective, it looked like she just swung her blade in the air, when in reality she unleashed a very thin psionic wave.

Without even acknowledging the dead Grimm, the Queen sprinted forward until she was in front of an Ursa Major. The gigantic creature roared in rage, slamming its paws down at the disguised Zerg. Seeing the obvious attack coming, Weiss conjured a glyph and used it as a shield. The Ursa screamed in pain when it felt all of the damage being reflected back into its paws. For you see, Weiss hadn't just conjured a normal glyph. Instead of resembling a snowflake, like it was the norm with the Schnee family, the inside now showed the symbol of the Zerg, one that had been invented by the Queen of Blades herself. Why the ascended queen created such a thing in the first place, Weiss could only guess, but she was proud of being able to bear it. It also allowed her to use her glyphs in very different matters from the norm.

For example, Weiss drew a glyph beneath her, making sure there was creep all around her. What followed was the multiple creep cylinders raising into the air, until they were as long as Spine Crawlers and took on the form of said static defenses. Those then proceeded to attack any nearby Grimm, from which still more poured out of the holes the King Tajitus created. Speaking of them, quite a number of them fell under the constant barrage of Hydralisk's spines, allowing the long ranged fighters to focus on the other Grimm. Weiss still held up her Glyph, knowing that the Spines surrounding her would disappear ten seconds after she stopped conjuring the glyph.

Ruby didn't understand what was going on, then again, she had a hard time comprehending everything from the very beginning. Plus she didn't have time to think about all the craziness anyways because those Nevermores were not only bombarding the Hydralisks, but also the three huntresses. Since killing Grimm didn't actually require a lot of thought, Ruby had turned her attention to the fliers and started shooting them. Her sister and Blake did the same since their leader didn't give them any other orders. And with the current amount of Grimm attacking, there wasn't much strategy that could be implemented anyway, aside from kill everything and stay alive.

The Spore Crawlers proved to be surprisingly resilient against the feathers of the Nevermores, even though they couldn't lose forever. Half of the original number were already lost. However the Spore Crawlers had a bigger range than the bird Grimm and given that those had no armor whatsoever, a single shot at least crippled the creatures, before they could do much else.

"I know this is the wrong time," Yang shouted, while reloading "but I just want to point out that the entire situation her is just downright crazy!"

"I think crazy is pretty much becoming the norm!" Ruby shouted back over her own shots.

Blake used her shadow clones to dodge an incoming onslaught of feathers, before shooting back, using electricity rounds. She managed to pump enough of those into one Nevermore, which temporarily stunned the creature and caused it to drop to the ground, where it was quickly torn apart by the Zerglings.

"We still need to get out of here! I have already used up three-fourths of my ammunition."

"Yeah, similar with me." Yang agreed with her partner. "You know, those guys here," she pointed at the Zerg "are actually doing a fine job themselves. We should just grab the Ice Queen and get out of here."

"That will not be necessary."

With the help of her normal glyphs, Weiss had jumped back to the position her team was currently occupying and turned towards the Nevermores. She conjured a huge Zerg Glyph, which covered a huge area, reflecting the Nevermore shots. With this being taken care of, Weiss turned her attention to the nearby Hydralisk.

"Kill the remaining King Tajitus. Clear the area, so that our Nydus Worms can break through."

The Hydralisks obeyed without question, snaking their way towards the ongoing fight.

"Er...Weiss?"

"Yes, Ruby?"

"What are...Nydus Worms?"

In response, Weiss simply smiled devilishly, as the ground began to shake once again.

XXX

The fight between Zerg and Grimm didn't go completely unnoticed. A singular Terran Battlecruiser, belonging to the rare class of so-called "Super-Battlecruisers", was stationed in high orbit around Remnant. An outsider might have asked how this thing was still capable of maneuvering, given that it looked like it had been navigating straight through an asteroid field, not to mention the flesh, spines, and tentacles growing out of it.

Yet the Aleksander was fully functional and occupied at the moment. Most of the crew had fallen to the Zerg Virus years ago and lost their individual minds. They could be compared to robots, only there to do a specific task on the ship.

Alexei Stukov, one of the few unfortunate earthlings to have survived the Brood War, was currently seated in his old command chair and watched the ongoing battle through a still functioning hologram of the star map. With him on deck were not only the necessary board personal but also a Broodmother by the name of Ki'Nara. Ki'Nara was a veteran Broodmother, having served ever since the Queen of Blades replaced the old starfish like Queens with the nowadays Broodmothers, like herself. She was smart enough to stay out of the conflict or civil war as the Terrans would name it, between all the other Broodmothers and decided to search with Alexei their lost Main Leviathan.

Finding it wasn't as hard as they expected it would turn out to be. Plus it appeared as if Izsha and Abathur had already decided on a successor to Zagara, that being the Terran girl named Weiss Schnee.

For years the two had observed the growth of the new Queen, trying to determine whether she was a worthy successor or not.

"Well," Stukov spoke with a heavy Russian accent "I didn't expect the Grimm to attack like this. It kind of reminds me of how the Zerg usually fight a foe."

Ki'Nara nodded in agreement. "Perhaps they possess a hive mind similar to our own."

"It seems like it. Interesting, wouldn't you agree? I wonder if they too have an Overmind controlling them? Because if that is the case, I am wondering why they haven't used their superior number to wipe out the humans from the face of this planet already?" Stukov stroked his beard, thinking.

"Maybe I am wrong. Maybe it was a coincidence that so many Grimm attacked at once. Or maybe they have a form of communication unknown to us." Ki'Nara suggested.

"Hmm… I doubt it is a coincidence, but so far this is the first time we have seen such a grand scale coordination between the Grimm. For now, we should see how Miss Schnee will fair in this battle. Ah, Nydus Worms. An old classic by now." the infested man commented.

"They have proven to be very effective if placed correctly," Ki'Nara commented. "This fight is over. The Grimm stand no chance against our Ultralisks."


End file.
